Jericho Day
by SilverSanctuary
Summary: Post Amber Spyglass.  A moment in Lyra's life as she helps out a friend during the bazaar.  Oneshot.


Hello! I am a very big fan of the _His Dark Materials _trilogy. I absolutely fell in love with Lyra, so I wanted to try to write a bit more about her. I wanted to look at how she grows and develops after the events of the _The Amber Spyglass_.

I've had this planned for a very long time and finally decided to post it. Thank you so very much for taking the time to look at it! Reviews are greatly appreciated.

**Disclaimer:** I do not own _His Dark Materials_. That honor belongs to the brilliant Philip Pullman. I only claim Colleen. Also, I do not own the song that inspired me to write this. "Children's Lullaby" is the work of Vertical Horizon.

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Little girl was down by the waterside_

_The sun so hot and the roses so red where she lie_

_As little boys sit and watch as she twirls all around_

_Sunny smiles, not a raincloud could bring that girl down_

_But now_

_What's behind those big brown eyes?_

_Do you dream at night without your lullaby?_

_~ "Children's Lullaby" by Vertical Horizon_

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The canals rang with noise. It was the day of the bazaar, and as Lyra crouched behind a wall, she bounced on her toes to keep her muscles from aching. Pantalaimon snuggled closer to her neck, his fur tickling her clavicle. The trading stalls had bright colored cloth awnings hanging over them, and the air hung heavy with the smells of baked bread, strawberries, and cooked meat. People moved everywhere: women looking at the fruits, jewelry, and bolts of cloth; men inspecting horses, books, and the butcher's freshest cuts; and children running among all of the activity armed with slingshots and flowers, sticking their toes in the canals, and investigating the curiosities of the bazaar with their daemons changing shape beside them.

It seemed that all of Oxford had gathered in the streets of Jericho for the bazaar. Lyra closed her eyes for a moment and listened, and she could hear the shouts of the children – there was a war going on between the townies and the gyptian children, just like always. It made her fingers twitch to see it, and she fought the urge to jump up and join them.

"No one will ever beat us stealin' the Costas' narrowboat," Pantalaimon murmured in her ear. She smiled, nodding in agreement at the memory. They had certainly made a legacy for themselves with that one, and she was positive none of the new collegers or townies could pull a bigger stunt than that.

She shook her head to beat off the nostalgia. "We've got a different job today though," she said firmly.

And there they were, over by a stall with a red awning that sold little white figurines of shepherdesses and animals. Colleen's mother wore a white scarf around her head despite the heat of the day. With a deep breath, Lyra stood and strode toward them.

Lyra couldn't quite remember when she'd met Colleen Adams at St. Sophia's. At first, she had been so wary of the other students, not sure how much of her story had preceded her, afraid of questions, and uncomfortable around so many girls. She'd never really had girl friends: there'd been Roger, and Hugh Lovet, and Simon Parslow when she was at Jordan; then Lord Faa, Farder Coram, Iorek Byrnison and Mr. Scoresby when she was traveling north; and finally Will during all the rest. All male. Lyra's only experience with women was her childish perception of dowdy female Scholars, her surreal experiences with Serafina Pekkala and the witches, the rough motherly affection of Ma Costa, her brief conversations with Dr. Mary Malone, and her visit to London with Mrs. Coulter—all such different presentations of femininity that Lyra did not know what to do. Now that she was at St. Sophia's and working with Dame Hannah, she strived to put aside her previous disdain for the women Scholars, but she still did not know how to interact with the other girls.

After awhile, however, she had relaxed a little and let Colleen become her friend. Colleen's daemon, Jax, had settled into the form of a desert fox, with a fluffy cream colored coat and large ears that seemed much too big for his head. The girl moved gently through her life, listening more than talking, so they got along well. Lyra could tell stories whenever she wanted for Colleen's enjoyment, but whenever Lyra did not wish to speak, Colleen didn't press or pry. She asked some questions, particularly about the alethiometer, but she always respected Lyra's choice to not answer.

Colleen did have an adventurous streak, but it manifested itself differently than Lyra's. She had never been as wild as Lyra, but the girl had always loved the idea of sailing, and when Lyra first showed her Jericho and the gyptian narrowboats, Colleen's eyes had been as round as the plates they served at dinner each night.

"You've never been here before?" Lyra had asked, and Colleen shook her head.

"Mother would never allow it," she said.

Colleen's mother, Mrs. Adams, was an elegant type of woman with powder brushes and lipstick tubes on her dressing table. She was the type of woman who valued society, reputation, and fashion above all things. She desired for Colleen to become a well-behaved young lady who would impress a young lord and get married. But she could not dampen Colleen's dreams, and Colleen continued to dream with Lyra, who considered Mrs. Adams to be a snob.

"Mother thinks you're a corrupting influence," Colleen told her when they'd returned from term holiday. "She told me to stay away from 'that Belacqua girl' and keep my head out of trouble. I don't think she approves of your traveling across half the world."

They'd laughed, and Lyra had said, "She doesn't approve of my parentage, or my upbringing, or my fashion sense either, if I remember! I thought she was gonna have some sort of attack when I told her I was so dirty 'cause Pan an' I'd spent the day up on the roofs!"

It had been a few months since Lyra's third visit to the Botanic Gardens when Colleen met her in her old room at the top of Staircase Twelve in Jordan College. She went and stood next to the window as Jax leapt up onto the sill and placed his little front paws next to each other.

"Lyra," she started, "have . . . have you ever been in love?"

Lyra dropped the pencil she was holding, and Pantalaimon's fur bristled up, so Colleen raised her hands and smiled a little. She'd come to know that Lyra kept secrets, and sometimes Colleen stumbled across clues to them, like how she went to the Botanic Gardens every year and now that she loved somebody, but Colleen didn't think it right of her to ask Lyra how the clues fit together. So instead she gave her a wan smile and hoped that Lyra's love would have a happy ending.

"Sorry," they said at the same time. Lyra leaned down to retrieve the pencil from under her desk. When she sat back straight, Colleen was running her fingers nervously through her hair. She looked out the window over the roofs and spires of Jordan but didn't seem to see any of them.

Lyra shot a glance at Pan, then asked, "Are you in love with someone?"

"Yes." She turned back, took a deep breath, and folded herself onto Lyra's bed. "You know Nick Canzona, right? Well, I've loved him forever, it seems, ever since you introduced me to him last year, and awhile ago, he told me he loved me too, so . . ." Colleen grinned nervously, and Lyra wasn't sure how to react for awhile.

But then everything clicked, like when she used to be able to read the alethiometer, and she understood why there was a worried line in Colleen's forehead even though she was smiling.

"Your mother don't know, does she? She'd kill you."

"'Course not."

Because the problem was that Nick Canzona was a gyptian boy, and Mrs. Adams would never, ever approve of her well-bred daughter falling in love with a gyptian. Plus, the gyptians were going to leave in the next couple of weeks once they finished with the trading at the autumn festivals, so Nick would be gone until the spring. Lyra reached out and squeezed Colleen's hand, because she knew something about being separated from the person you most wanted to be with.

"Don't worry. I'll help you," she said.

So as the months ticked by and the spring festival drew closer, the girls started to concoct their plan. Mrs. Adams would be coming to visit, and so Lyra put herself in charge of making sure Mrs. Adams would let Colleen be alone for a bit so she and Nick could see each other after so long apart.

Lyra and Pan threaded through the crowd of the bazaar and politely came up to the woman in the white headscarf and started talking. It was simple enough to accomplish. Mrs. Adams was easily distracted, and it didn't take much for Lyra to convince her to discuss fashion with the owner of a clothing stall while Lyra took Colleen to visit with friends. The moment they were out of sight, the girls turned straight for the canals.

Closer to the water, there were couples walking, groups of young ladies giggling together as they munched on strawberries, and groups of young men working on the boats, grooming the horses, or leaning against walls talking. Boats crowded the canals, gyptian ones with their bright paint and curling floral designs, so that there was hardly any space for the water to flow among them.

Once, when Lyra and Colleen were walking down the streets of Jordan, Colleen had said that the boys were looking at Lyra, that they were captivated by the bright flash of her hair in the sun.

"They know you're something special," she'd said.

Lyra had laughed and scoffed at the idea at the time because she still did not think of herself as beautiful, so why would boys be looking at her? Surely they'd be looking at Colleen, with her fine small nose and long brown hair. But every once in awhile, Lyra found herself glancing in the direction of the boys, to see if she could catch them looking at her. Sometimes she would meet the gaze of one of them, and their eyes would watch each other for a moment before they quickly looked away, and then Lyra would put her hand up into Pantalaimon's fur and hold on until the unsettled feeling in her stomach passed.

At times like that, she'd look up at the sky and remember, then come back to the present with a smile on her face.

Beside her, Colleen let out a little squeal and ran towards a red boat sitting low in the water. Nick Canzona was working on some of the ropes, but when he saw them, he jumped onto the wharf and caught Colleen up in his arms. Lyra stood off to the side and kept a sharp eye out for Mrs. Adams's white scarf while Nick swung Colleen around and around before setting her down on her feet again. Jax was nuzzling Nick's hedgehog daemon happily.

After a moment, Nick came and shook Lyra's hand, thanking her for keeping their secret and helping Colleen come and meet him today. Lyra just smiled, nodded, and went off to trail Mrs. Adams, making sure the lady didn't come too close to the wharf and the boats, and to enjoy the bazaar herself.

When she walked to St. Sophia's at the end of the day, she took a back way, wandering up Banbury Road and around the curve, heading east. Just as Lyra and Pantalaimon passed the last building on the corner, they both paused. Something familiar brushed past them, nothing physical, just a sense in the air, as if two worlds had come together for an instant. In the blue of the evening, Lyra felt at peace.

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Thank you so much for reading! Please review? Feedback is always appreciated! :)

~ SilverSanctuary


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